Illinois Razor Strop Company vs Heirloom Razor Strop Company.

[The Shave Doctor]

I have read a lot of people recommend Tony Miler Strops.

Any opinion on the Illinois Strops. I was looking at the Illinois Razor Strop #127. Anyone ever use the Empire Barber supply they have it for $35

Illinois #127 Leather razor Strop

The Illinois #127 Razor Strop measures 2 1/2' wide and 23' long including hand grip, and has a sturdy clip for hanging. This strop has two sides, a leather side and a linen side. The linen side is for initial stropping and the leather side is for fine stropping. This strop is fantastic for...

empirebarbersupply.com

I saw a Youtube video where someone mentioned applying a paste with grit to your strop.

Is this needed if so what kind do you get.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[silverlifter]

I saw a Youtube video where someone mentioned applying a paste with grit to your strop.

The only thing that touches your strop should be your razors. If you want to use paste as part of your honing progression, stick it on a cheap strop specifically for that purpose.

If this is your first strop, talk to Tony about one of his beginner strops; he'll set you up.

 

[Darth Scandalous]

Tony's strops have far better hardware. And he will sell replacement leather if you cut yours up badly or just want to upgrade.

 

[Honedright]

If you want to try an Illinois Razor Strop Co strop I recommend the #361 only. The sewn on leather handles on the #127 and #827 look nice and traditional, but every IRS strop I’ve owned with those handles, the leather eventually cracks, the handles fall off, and you end up with a short strop. Maybe they have improved the quality? I don’t know. But with the #361 you will never have to worry about it. That said, the #361 is a good strop that will improve once it is broke-in.

 

[H Brad Boonshaft]

Illinois a good entry strop, but for a few dollars more you can buy a quality strop from Tony Miller. And, you can as said get preplacement leather, hardware is much better and leather quality is hand selected. A good strop is a multi-lifetime purchase.

Stropping a razor is your last chance to polish and perfect the razor edge prior to touching your face. Regardless of your skills, the quality of the strop will reflect the edge.

Stropping skill can take a while to master, you will likely nick a strop or two. The ability to purchase a replacement leather or upgrade is a big plus.

Pasted strops are a whole different rabbit hole, you can certainly keep a razor shaving with paste, many have for hundreds of years.

Do not paste your leather strop, once pasted you can never remove all the paste. If you want to experiment with paste and there are hundreds of all different abrasives from soot to diamonds and many different grits down to nano grits.

While pastes can keep an edge keen, many find the edges harsh. There are more comfortable, keen edges.

If you want to experiment with paste, (I once did, years ago. It was a 2-3 year experiment) paste a piece of cardboard, inside of a cereal box, once you find a paste you like, go to a fabric store and buy poly, nylon or cotton webbing and make a hanging strop with D-rings, (hardware store) and test further. Webbing can be purchased for a few dollars a yard, or brown paper shopping bags or Pellon, (fabric store).

I now rarely use paste for razors, there are much better alternatives. As your stropping skill improves so too will your edges, it can take a year of daily stropping to master stropping, get to a point that you are consistently improving the edge.

 

[Honedright]

A new IRS strop is much like a Stanley hand plane.

Out of the box a new Stanley plane (even many vintage ones) leaves something to be desired. If you know how to fine tune the plane - true the sole, correct the chip breaker, initialize and hone the cutting iron, you’ll have a fine tool. Or, you can buy a new Veritas or Lie Nielsen for about 10 times the price and you’ll have a beautiful tool that should be ready to work right out of the box. Chances are you will still need to tune them up a bit as well. But with the Stanley, you’ll learn an awful lot about hand planes.

 

[duke762]

If I was new to the stopping procedure, I'd practice on the IRS and would buy a nice Tony Miller later, after I had destroyed the IRS learning. New stroppers make mistakes, experienced stoppers just make fewer of them. Tony Miller strops are a work of art and I'd hate to mess one up. I'm positive you would be happier with a Tony Miller practice strop than the IRS. I have one and I hate it, I still take it out periodically to give the stink eye....

 

[Steve56]

Tony Miller all the way. Life’s too short to dance with ugly strops.

 

[Honedright]

This is my #361 that I’ve used almost exclusively for over ten years. I did replace the original linen with a vintage. Not that there is anything wrong with the original, I just wanted to try this vintage one. I don’t think it’s ugly. It’s plain, but beautiful in it’s simplicity, it’s a work-horse strop and it does what it’s supposed to do.

I’m sure Tony’s strops are very nice as everyone who’s used one seems to recommend them. I’ve just never used one, so I can’t fairly comment on them. Maybe I’ll try one someday.

 

[Roughkype]

The Illinois 127 was my first, and for years my only, strop. It was an uninformed purchase but not a bad one. Like everyone says, I nicked it up a bit, but it's a thick piece of leather and I smoothed out the divots and kept using it. I haven't used it since treating myself to a Horween shell strop, much nicer.

To work on your technique without nicking up a new piece of leather, you can strop on folded newspaper held in a bulldog clip. This will also teach you proper tension and force. Stropping should be a gentle process--if you pull the paper from the clip, you're holding it too taut and/or putting too much pressure on the blade.